Book chosen for Fayette discussion group 9.4

Written by David Green.

Life in frontier Arizona is explored in the first book of the season at Fayette’s Thursdays @ 7 Book Club Sept. 25.

“These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine” by Nancy Turner presents a fictional diary of the author’s great-grandmother who struggles with life and love at the end of the 19th century when Arizona was still being settled.

When the story begins, Sarah Prine is an 18 year old who shows she can hold her own on the family’s frontier settlement near Tucson.

Her rifle skills keep the Native Americans at bay and also fend off assaults from outlaws. This also gets the attention of an Army captain named Jack Elliot.

By the time Sarah is 21, her diary has recorded her unhappy marriage to a family friend, the birth to her first child and eventually the death of her husband. Her relationship with Jack soon blossoms.

Her diary starts in a fragmented manner with poor spelling and grammar, but begins to mature through the years to tell a compelling story of the Old West.

Copies of the book are available at the circulation desk of Normal Memorial Library. Everyone is invited to attend the discussion at 7 p.m. Sept. 25, either to talk about the book or just listen to others give their thoughts.